Abbas Kiarostami workshop 2- 10 May 2005

The London Film School and the Iran Heritage Foundation,
in collaboration with Channel 4 and Hot Property Films, present a nine-day
intensive workshop, led by the celebrated Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami,
as part of the London wide festival of Kiarostami’s work.

Abbas Kiarostami has run filmmakers' workshops in the past few years,
most recently in Turin, Italy and Sao Paulo, Brazil. These courses, encompassing
the arts of direction and screenwriting, have had an extraordinary impact
on their participants. Kiarostami deals with the most basic questions
of screen form, with the filmmaker's relationship to their audience and
their story, with illuminating simplicity. Participants will make films
on DV during the workshop.

Through the support of Channel 4, The Iran Heritage Foundation and the
French Institute, the workshop is being offered free of charge. Twenty-five
participants will be recruited through competitive application. The selection
panel includes representatives from the London Film School, FilmFour,
the National Film Theatre and Hot Property Films. The selection panel
will be looking for candidates who can bring a knowledge of independent
world cinema and creative skills to the workshop process. Technical film
training is not essential. The deadline for applications is 25th March.

The workshop and films will be produced by BAFTA- winning producer Janine
Marmot for Hot Property Films. Marmot has built a reputation as a producer
of innovative cinema for a world wide audience. Her credits include ‘Bodysong’,
directed by Simon Pummell and ‘I Could Read the Sky’, directed
by Nicola Bruce.

Ben Gibson, Director of the London Film School said “Very few
people have the creative and intellectual clarity to invent cinema from
its most basic elements, from the ground up. We are very lucky to have
the chance to see a master like Kiarostami thinking on his feet.”

The London Film School was founded in 1956. Its graduates include Mike
Leigh, Michael Mann, Tak Fujimoto, Bill Douglas and Roger Pratt. Since
2001 the LFS, under its current director and independent producer Ben
Gibson, and Chaired by LFS alumnus Mike Leigh, has re-invented itself
as one of the world's key graduate film conservatoires. It offers a
2 year MA Film-making course and is launching a 1-year MA Screenwriting
course in September, both validated by the London Metropolitan University.

The school is also building a range of events and workshops outside
the main degree programmes, attracting participants from all over the
UK, at all levels of filmmaking experience. In the last year the school
has mounted events at the French Institute (Scenario!) and at the Edinburgh
Film Festival. As well as the one week Abbas Kiarostami workshop, The
London Film School is co-presenting an ‘In Conversation’ event
with Kiarostami and Mike Leigh at the V & A on 8th May.

The Iran Heritage Foundation

The Foundation is a UK charity established in October 1995 to help promote
and preserve the rich culture and heritage of Iran, both ancient and
modern. This remit is interpreted generously and the Foundation encourages
a wide range of activities on a worldwide basis, intended to provide
a forum to facilitate the study and understanding of Iran's culture
among students, the academic community and the public at large. Visit
www.iranheritage.com for further information.

The workshop is part of Abbas Kiarostami: Visions of the Artist
A London festival of the Iranian artist’s work. 26 April – 21
June

Abbas Kiarostami is the most internationally celebrated Iranian cultural
figure of the 20th and 21st centuries. A prolific and critically-acclaimed
filmmaker, artist, photographer and poet, his work is effortlessly simple
and conceptually complex in equal measure.

This spring, a London-wide programme of events celebrates the achievements
of this artist and his impact on contemporary culture and society both
inside and outside Iran. The festival of Abbas Kiarostami’s work
will raise awareness of the dynamics of cultural creativity in today’s
Iran, and is organised by the Iran Heritage Foundation, as part of their tenth anniversary celebrations.